The civil rights attorney representing two Pittsburgh high school students who were allegedly threatened and attacked by a school-resource officer for the Woodland Hills School District released new video Tuesday that appears to show an alleged third incident involving another student.
At a press conference Tuesday, civil rights attorney Todd Hollis said there’s a clear pattern of abuse targeting black students in the Pennsylvania district, KDKA reports.
“If a picture speaks a thousand words ... a video has to speak a million,” Hollis said.
The students and their families were present at the press conference as Hollis showed videos from the alleged incidents in the Woodland Hills School District.
In one video from March 3, 2015, a 15-year-old student is heard being asked to leave class and report to the office. School-resource officer Steve Shaulis is seen putting the teen in a headlock.
“Body-slams him to the ground. Here comes Principal [Kevin] Murray. He holds the kid’s head down into the carpet; Shaulis is deploying his Taser,” Hollis said, narrating the video.
Flashes seen on the video show the Taser being used three times, Hollis said.
A 14-year-old special-needs student recorded Murray appearing to threaten him, while another 14-year-old had his teeth knocked out by Shaulis while Murray was present, Hollis said.
“You’ll see Principal Kevin Murray come in and out of the scene. You see the young man has not come out of the room that he was just recently walked into,” Hollis said.
Attorney Phil DiLucente, who represents both Murray and Shaulis, has said that the principal was not aware of what happened until it had already transpired, but the video shown Tuesday appears to clearly show him at the scene, KDKA reports.
Hollis plans to file a lawsuit and said he wants the superintendent, the principal, any administrator who was aware of the alleged incidents, the school board and the school-resource officer fired.
“What Mr. Hollis has done here is take two or three isolated incidents over the course of several years in a building of 1,700 students and has managed to weave that into a conspiracy,” Woodland Hills Superintendent Alan Johnson said.
The Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office is aware of the videos Hollis showed Tuesday and said in a statement that it is working with state and federal agencies to determine what, if any, crimes were committed.
“In the course of the investigative work by the Allegheny County police, our office was made aware of the videos that were shown to the media today,” the statement, issued Tuesday, read. “As we have previously stated, we are working with other agencies, both state and federal, to determine what crimes have been committed and which venue best addresses the issues presented. The investigation is ongoing and, when appropriate, we will comment further.”
Read more at KDKA CBS Pittsburgh.